To appropriately ship packages, it has long been known to strap such packages with one or several packing straps that are sealed by strapping equipment to said packages. To ship heavy-industry goods, usually, though not exclusively, the above cited metal straps and in particular steel straps are used. To prevent such steel straps from rusting, they are ever more frequently fitted with a protective coat that typically may be an enamel or the like or a wax.
The strapping equipment of the art is fitted with a strap guide and a drive to guide said strap around the package. As a rule, the strapping equipment also comprises a tensioner to allow appropriately tensioning the strap loop placed around the particular package. A clamping system of said strapping equipment allows sealing said strap loop to the material to be packed to be used in the ensuing connection procedure at the package. Thereupon, the strap loop shall be locked/sealed in place in a zone of said loop where two strap plies are superposed on each other.
In a first known procedure of the art, said seal is implemented on packing straps of the above kind by using an additional sealing element placed around the said overlapping strap ends and then being plastically deformed. This procedure however incurs the drawback of requiring an additional sealing element, typically a lead seal. Moreover, this kind of seal may not always withstand high stresses. The same reservations apply to other strapping techniques that do not use sealing elements, for instance resorting to notched sealing elements.
Also the European patent document EP 0 621 181 B1 discloses a procedure using a tungsten inert gas procedure to permanently join together the two strap ends without resort to another sealing element. This procedure, however, may be considered disadvantageous in that an inert gas must be used to for seal. No other need for inert gas existing in many enterprises that use such strapping equipment, the latter alone must justify inert gas logistics and supplies for strapping.
Besides the above cited tungsten inert gas welding procedure, other appropriate procedures to create an seal on protectively coated straps are known and appropriate, namely those joining the two strap plies by resort to notches. However the ensuing restricted load capacity of such connections and the relatively large area of damage to the said protective layer and to the metal strap may be considered disadvantageous.
Lastly, the German patent document 929 059 discloses connecting to each other two strap ends by resistance welding. In this procedure, resistance welding is used wherein two electrodes will directly contact the metal surfaces of the two strap plies which in turn also make electrical contact with each other. Electric contact between the two electrodes by means of the two strap plies is easily established. Said German patent document 929 059 is dated from the year 1959. At that time only uncoated steel straps were used, consequently the objective of the German patent document 929 059 has been inappropriate to packing straps fitted with a protective coating.
Indeed the most diverse procedures relating to other applications, for instance pressure welding techniques such as gas pressure welding or ultrasonic welding also are known. However the coatings of the packing straps also always are an impediment in such welding procedures, they ought to be considered basically inappropriate.